


Gold and Green

by cymyguy



Series: 12 Days of Kagehina Christmas [8]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 12 Days of Christmas, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Christmas, Coming of Age, Dancing, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Genderswap, Kageyama Tobio's Birthday, Prince Tobio, Princes & Princesses, Princess Shou, balls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 15:16:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17103020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cymyguy/pseuds/cymyguy
Summary: Shou attends her first ball and dances with the boy of her...Well, a boy.





	Gold and Green

**Author's Note:**

> song: "Gold and Green" - Sugarland  
> Please enjoy Princess Shou I love her

Princess Shou was ready for her first ball. Her parents had been horrible to her for the six months since she turned 16, withholding all ball privileges until she could prove to her instructors that she was capable of behaving as properly as a princess must. But when they tested her she always forgot things, or rushed herself and executed them poorly. She knew she could do it, and she told them so many times, each time with growing assurance in herself, that finally, when the December invitation arrived, her fathers were inclined to let her go. They had very little hope in anything other than the idea that she might be a little humbled from going, and that it would help temper her manners.

Shou didn’t care at all why she was being allowed, of course. She was attending a birthday ball in honor of a certain prince’s turning 16 and coming of age. She wore a white dress with tiny drips of gold running down the skirt, with poufy white shoulders and flecks of gold in the white sleeves. Alone in her carriage she practiced etiquette under her breath, but the first sight of the palace blew half the knowledge out of her mind, and when the doors to the ballroom were opened for her, the other half was chased away too.

She would be forever grateful that the prince’s birthday was so close to Christmas; the decorations were all gold and green bulbs, and garland and tinsel, and holly leaves were scattered over the tables in place of petals. There was an enormous tree in one corner, hardly a needle to be seen as it was so laden with balls and beads and sparkle.

Everything was beautiful, but the best sight of all came after she had taken in the rest. She saw, standing near the high windows by the wall, a prince more handsome, she thought, than any other could possibly be. His hair was smooth, shiny, and so dashingly dark, and he had such high, set shoulders, and his eyes she could tell were blue even from so far away. It was fate, or a Christmas miracle, that he was not dancing yet. He stood with his hands in his pockets, waiting.

If she could have run, she would have, but luckily for her, the crowd of young people prevented it. She got there quickly, still, and so suddenly appeared in front of him that he blinked in surprise.

“Hello.” She curtsied and smiled her absolute best. “I’m Shou.”

As she waited for his reply, nothing happened but his face taking up a red flush. She noticed it, but was too excited, and too hopeful, to also notice the agitation in his tight features. She only supposed him to be shy, which pleased her more.

“Would you like to dance with me?”

He shook his head, as much as his stiff neck would allow. Her mouth dropped open.

“Why not?”

The song had happened to finish at that moment, and half the room looked over at her indignant voice. The prince grew redder, and when he finally spoke, was blunt.

“I’ve never met you. And you don’t even look old enough to be here.”

She gaped at him as he walked away.

Shou turned and stomped off, brushing too close to others, with no real destination until she spotted a familiar princess.

“Tadashi! Did you see what just happened?”

“I think everyone did,” she murmured, avoiding the redhead’s eyes.

“I’ve never met someone so rude in my life.”

“He’s probably thinking the same thing.”

“How can he be a—Wait—What did you say?”

“I’m going to dance with Princess Hisashi.”

Shou watched her move away. When she turned to look for someone else to listen to her woes, there was a wide space between her and seemingly everyone. They were trying to avoid her, even to the point of shuffling away when she smiled and began to introduce herself, and the people she knew were trying hardest of all. She turned and saw a group of girls looking at her. Their shoulders shook with giggles, and they quickly put their heads together. She felt tears prick at her eyes.

There was a set of glass doors at the other end of the room near the musicians’ seats. She went to the doors and slipped through them, out into a snowy, untamed kind of clearing. Her tears melted away without falling, as she looked around at the towering fir trees, green blanketed with white. The party noises were very muted here, where the silence of nature ruled. There was a little stone bench along the path worn through the ground. It was free of snow, but still cold when she sat down. She sighed and looked at her lap.

She heard a footstep crunch. She flinched as her heart surged in speed. There was a throaty noise, and her head whipped around, looking through the darkness made by the close trees.

“Who’s out here?” she demanded.

They stepped out of shadow, into the golden pools of light from the palace windows. She gasped. It was the handsome, monstrous prince. She balled her fists.

“What are _you_ doing here? Have you figured out that not even beautiful grown up people will dance with someone so mean?”

“It was quiet here,” he said, “Until you came.”

“It was quiet until you scared me.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Well, I know the way you embarrassed me just now in the ballroom _was_ on purpose.”

She crossed her arms and tossed her head away, sticking her chin up. He walked a little closer.

“I—”

“You’re sorry? I don’t care, it’s too late to be friends now.”

“I was going to say I can’t—can’t dance.”

Her head turned fast.

“I hate balls. But my parents insisted. I didn’t want to dance with you because I knew I would make a fool of myself.”

“Oh,” she murmured. “Well, I don’t care if you’re a good dancer. I’m sure I’m not as good as most of the princesses here.”

Shou heaved a sigh.

“The first person I ever asked to dance refused, and everyone saw it happen and laughed at me, and now they don’t want to be around me. I only wanted to dance to that wonderful music, and wish the prince a Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas.”

He was quiet, as she put her chin in her hand and looked at the snow-spotted ground. Then he cleared his throat.

“You can still do the last thing you wanted to do.”

“If no one else will talk to me, he never would,” she said.

He scowled. “You’re wrong. You’re the only one he’s talked to.”

Shou looked up. “How do you know, do you know this prince? Or were you spying on me?”

“No, I wasn’t,” he said through his teeth.

“But—But I haven’t talked to any boys except—you…”

She gasped, leapt to her feet and ran a few steps away from him.

“How could you lie and sneak around like that?” she cried. “You’re terrible!”

“I am not.” He glared. “And I didn’t lie.”

“You’re the prince…” Her teeth worried at her lip, and she squeezed her hands together. “Oh...” She gave a hopeless huff. “I haven’t been very good company to you on your birthday.”

“I’d still rather be out here, than in there,” he said.

“What’s your name?” she said.

“Tobio.”

“Tobio. Happy birthday.”

He blushed and looked at his feet. They were quiet.

“Aren’t you cold?” he said then. “We should go back now. I have to, or my parents will punish me for trying to escape.”

He moved back toward the golden doors. She stared as he walked past her. When it was almost too late, she called out.

“Tobio wait. Um, please wait.”

He looked over his shoulder.

“I—Since I offended everyone at the party by talking to you before we were introduced…You might be the only one I still have a chance of dancing with. So, while we’re out here alone, maybe we could? I mean, would you? There’s no one to be embarrassed in front of, only me, who doesn’t like you anyway. And I—I just want to dance once, so when I think of this ball, my memories won’t be all bad.”

She didn’t look up, but could hear the crunching as he shifted his feet.

“I guess I should. Dance with someone. My parents will ask me later if I did,” he said.

“So will mine, and wouldn’t it be awful to say you didn’t dance a single time?”

Tobio slowly extended his hand, palm up.

Her face was set aglow with her smile, and she stepped close enough to angle her hand into his and raise their hands out beside them. He was even slower with his other hand, intently tracking its motion up to her shoulder. She looked at it as it settled lightly there, then looked at him, mouth a little open. Then she bit her lip as she smiled, and neither could she contain the giggle. He flushed and scowled, but didn’t move his hand.

“Yours goes here—” She guided it to her waist— “And mine goes here.” She put hers on his shoulder. Since it was too late to pretend he knew, he could only nod.

The clearing softly mirrored the splendor of the ballroom, with the green trees, and the windows spilling gold onto the snow. Their ears could faintly trace the melody being created inside, and they tried their best to dance to it. Tobio looked at their feet, or somewhere over her head in the few moments when he was sure of his rhythm.

“You’re not _terrible_.”

She was watching his feet and missed his scowl.

“I’m sure there are people much worse. Can you spin me?”

He raised their hands and gave a small twist to her wrist. She twirled once, and the gold on her skirt shimmered like rain. His feet stopped as he focused hard on catching her waist. She found his shoulder again, and smiled up at him.

“That was good!”

“It was easy, because of how short you are.”

She stomped on his foot. He glared, then looked down a moment to restart his steps.

“Besides. No one would care that you’re a bad dancer.”

She smiled, and looked as if she was keeping a great secret. It begged him to ask:

“Why not?”

“Because you’re so handsome.”

She spun again, and when he caught her in his hold she was closer this time, though they didn’t notice. Shou never stopped smiling as they danced, moving less and less to the music, and more to the nature of each other. They heard a melody of their own swelling, different than the music inside, so powerful that it stilled everything around them, making them feel for a minute like they were the only two things brought to life. He looked at her long enough to notice the rings of gold in her brown eyes.

Then he caught one foot on the other, stumbling sideways, and she put her other hand on his shoulder to steady him. Tobio blushed. They moved apart.

“We should go back in now,” she said.

“Yes.”

He wasted no time in taking the lead. She followed a little distance behind.

“What’s your Christmas wish, Tobio?”

“I haven’t made one,” he said.

“Well you’re running out of time. I wished that my pony will live another year. She’s old, they say she shouldn’t even have lived this long. But I don’t want a new pony for Christmas, I only want to keep her.”

He stalled his steps, thoughtful.

“I’ll wish for the same thing.”

Her eyes went wide.

“Then it will be twice as likely to come true,” he finished.

Her smile, all her smiles, were so loud, just like her hair and her eyes and her voice, but it was not a kind of loudness that bothered him.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have called you terrible,” she said. “You are bad, but not terrible.”

Tobio shot her another scowl and turned his back. She laughed. It made him smile.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday Tobio :’)  
> Next fic coming Christmas Eve!


End file.
